Cycling the Bay Area & Stories from the Garden

Random Thursday Post

The weather has been absolutely EPIC here in Oakland the last couple of weeks. This little reminder that the calendar is not really in charge of squat, has given some of my vegetables the idea that now, is the right time to start growing and producing. If you have been following along, you probably already know that crop production is something that my patio garden utterly failed to do during the generally accepted summer season. The only exception to the ‘no-grow’ zone was my strawberries and herbs.

A runner from my strawberry v. lipstick has taken root nicely

Now, I wonder, will the heat last long enough to allow all this growth to come to fruition, did I get to take a gardening Mulligan? I will think happy thoughts for a warm couple of weeks and see what happens.

Today’s post: Calendar-schmalendar, we’ll grow when we want to, and you’ll like it!!

Cherry Tomatoes v. Isis

The cherry tomato plant (v. Isis) has exploded with growth after a relatively lackluster summer growing season. So lackluster in fact, that the above two tomatoes are in fact, the first tomatoes of the season. Go figure!

Isis spreads her wings and grows

Also deciding to take a leap at production is my bell pepper plant (the jalapeno – remains an Uber-dud-orama!). I was checking the plant this morning during my regular watering and I was happy to see that there are 3-newly forming bells emerging from their flowering bud. Again, like the tomato, the bell pepper produced a grand total of nothing all season – the closest attempt at produce was a malformed mini-bell which never really panned out.

Little bells in the making

My Tuscan Kale is valiantly trying to stage a late-season come-back as well. Although, I fear it may be too little, too late for the remaining kale crop. The originally crops were literally laid to waste by a never-ending succession of hungry caterpillars. I finally brought them inside, and they are trying to make something of themselves, time will tell. I may be looking at one small salad from everything that is currently growing – all in all – one salad, would be nice. Either way, I enjoyed this summer’s gardening season immensely.

Tuscan Kale - indoors, looking out, and trying to grow

I will leave you all today with another image of my blooming Orchid. I find the way the bloom is unfolding itself to be one of the most interesting things that I have watched in my gardening career. I find myself trying to figure it out, analyzing the shape to make it make sense to the mental image I hold of what an Orchid’s flower looks like (as if there was just one flower type). Every day, the Orchid says to me; ‘You aren’t even close, just sit back and enjoy, I will show up when I am ready.’ The quintessential, Does a watched pot ever boil? Well, yes, it does, and eventually, a watched Orchid will fully develop into a flower – so there!

Click this image, then click again, get it to full size, you will like what you see!